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smackcode (osm-ph mapper)

This will be a series of blog post featuring an Openstreetmap-Philippines mapper. The community is steadily growing, thanks to all the contributors (234 as of my last count). Some community members went beyond mapping by organizing events, blogging and appearing on local media to promote OSM-PH. Each week, I will introduce you to an OSM-PH contributor (not necessarily a Filipino, btw). I hope readers can learn more about OSM-PH by sharing our experience and insights as an OSMer.

This week is George Tujan (aka smackcode). An OSMer for about 1.5 years, he describes himself as a “linux advocate, delphi fan, OSM addict”.

Who is smackcode?

I’m George Tujan, part of Neuraltech Innovations an IT startup in Davao City which primarily develops tracking systems for trucks and other company vehicles. I’m also a member of DabaweGNU a non-profit organization whose primary aim is to provide its members a venue for technical growth in “Free/Open Source Software” (FOSS) technologies and to advocate the use of this technology to the rest of the community. Most of my free time is spent on music, mapping and blogs.

Bump into it one day while looking for open-source alternatives to mapping systems.

What is your mapping rig (equipment) and how do you gather map data?

I use a Garmin GPSmap 60C for marking POIs but for mobile mapping I use a modified version of our vehicle tracking hardware which logs tracks either on an SD card or direct to a laptop running Ubuntu and TangoGPS. I want my mapping experience to be as unobtrusive as possible, I just drive around and process it later.

What is it that you HATE most about OSM (we all love OSM, some things just needs improvement)?

Not necessarily hate but I’d want Potlatch’s UI improved. It needs to be sexier for the “still-not-that-into-osm” crowd. I also hope that tile server performance improves, so we get better, faster updates.

Why is openstreetmap important to you and the Philippines?

1. It is THE most comprehensive map of the Philippines
2. It is crowd-sourced and open to everyone.
3. You can do so much with it!